Most commentators believe that the end of the exclusive is not due to Apple losing power over operators, but to operators’ desperation to have the device.

Apple is understood to demand much greater control of operators’ business plans, and a share of revenue unprecedented in normal operator-manufacturer contracts – all of which may mean that the competition is not as fierce as consumers might hope.

Operators won’t have much room to manoeuvre as they are subsidising the hardware, Carolina Milanesi of analyst firm Gartner told the BBC: “You may see a £30 per month tariff versus £35, but I would not expect anything more.”

Vodafone’s adoption of the iPhone perhaps shows low confidence in the company’s mobile services offering, Vodafone 360 which launched this week, and is seen as an attempt to keep control of mobile services, where the iPhone model hands much of that over to Apple.